Thursday, October 27, 2011

Rina, Following-Up, and Dexter

First, to set your minds at ease: Kathryn and I are safe and sound. Hurricane Rina has passed us, moving north to the Yucatan peninsula. It's been downgraded to a tropical depression and might shower us with precipitation for the next few days, but it shouldn't disrupt our travel plans for next week's beach trip. Nice.

Next, I'd like to give you a brief follow-up on my last blog post. I read this earlier today. I'm disappointed and perturbed that the mayor would claim that "the man pulled a fast one on us,"--the man, I assume, being my fellow Peace Corps volunteer. I'd also like to point out that rainbows are now, apparently, offensive, so be careful fans of colorful t-shirts and Care Bears! I'd hate for you to be mistakenly agitating those around you.

All of this discussion leads me to Dexter. I read another interesting article here, about one of Kathryn's and my favorite television shows. For those of you unfamiliar with Dexter, he's a serial killer serial killer. At first glance, it's gory and risque in a way we've all come to expect from HBO. However, after a period of desensitization, Dexter begins to grow on you. You begin to realize that by following his train-of-thought, he makes logical conclusions. Eventually, you begin to root for him--or at least we did.

This season, Dexter comes face-to-face with a new spectre--religion. As a scientist, he's the archetypical analytical mind that requires empirical data and hard evidence. Except now, his world collides with that of two deeply religious individuals: the born-again ex-con and the Revelation expert responsible for the latest string of killings.

So what does this have to do with rainbows in Belize?

I could not be more excited for this season of Dexter because it creates the space for dialogue. Open-mindedness and tolerance are shaping up to be main thematic elements. By exposing the viewing public to these themes, I hope that society at-large can begin to think more critically and speak more openly when encountering the religiously other.

When I read news--whether Belizean, American, or other--my eye gravitates towards the religious topics. The unfortunate truth is that religion rests at the heart of some of the most heated debates of our time--abortion, sexual orientation, evolution as public school curriculum. Furthermore, history is peppered with instances of religious groups oppressing and enacting genocide upon others--the Crusades, the Inquisition, Israel/Palestine, to name a few. Even to this day, there remain religious undercurrents in many of the world's armed conflicts. Religious differences continue to divide humanity.

Currently, Dexter shows the varied levels commitment to one's faith and the potential for misinterpretation and misuse. For Dexter, religious experience is a last resort in a time of desperate need. For the character of Brother Sam, it's the motivation for a new life and an explanation of the otherwise inexplicable. And for Doomsday killer, it's a rationalization for death and violence. Highlighting these differences in men with similar personalities only shows how little divides disparate religious views.

It's instructive to remember that Jesus was most critical of those of his same faith. He did little to truly proselytize, but rather let his actions speak for themselves. Apart from the tables of certain money-changers, the only violence in Jesus' ministry was that done to him. Like God saving the pagan city of Nineveh, Jesus spoke a message for all humanity. And, in the context of the current discussion, if Jesus had to choose a serial killer, he would choose Dexter over the Doomsday killer any day.

When the season ends, I really hope Dexter remains agnostic. I think he'll bridge the gap from pure atheist to the agnostic, "I can't count it out," perspective, and that will be a win for me. The world needs to see positive models of discussion of religious differences. If that can happen, then hopefully demonizing rainbows is the next thing to go.

Peace,

Cisco

1 Comments:

At December 2, 2011 at 3:16 PM , Blogger Emilio Fernandez said...

Good morning how are you?

My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.

I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.

For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Belize? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Belize in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:

Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain

If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.

Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.

Yours Sincerely

 

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